STAND. COM. REP. NO. 3238

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: H.B. No. 2758

H.D. 2

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2024

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Agriculture and Environment and Transportation and Culture and the Arts, to which was referred H.B. No. 2758, H.D. 2, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO AGRICULTURE,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to:

(1) Facilitate the control and eradication of invasive species and pests;

(2) Establish a Plant Nursery Licensing Program;

(3) Require the Board of Agriculture to designate certain species as pests for control or eradication;

(4) Impose certain limits on imports and transportation; and

(5) Update the method by which the Board of Agriculture updates its noxious weed list.

Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Land and Natural Resources, Sierra Club of Hawaiʻi, Coordinating Group on Alien Pest Species, Kauaʻāina Ulu ʻAuamo, Hawaiʻi Farmers Union United, Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement, Ka ʻOhana O Na Pua, Hui Hoʻomalu I Ka ʻAina, Hawaiʻi Land Trust, North Shore Neighborhood Board No. 27, and twenty-nine individuals.

Your Committees received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Hawaii Government Employees Association, AFSCME Local 152, AFL-CIO and Hawaii Floriculture and Nursery Association.

Your Committees received comments on this measure from the Department of Agriculture, Department of the Attorney General, Hawaiʻi Farm Bureau, Hawaiʻi Forest Industry Association, and Maui Chamber of Commerce.

Your Committees find that the entry and establishment of a new, devastating pest or disease is an ever-present reality, given the increase and expansion of global trade and travel. Your Committees further find that that horticultural trade is one of the primary pathways through which invasive pests are spread around the State. This measure will mitigate the introduction and spread of invasive pests and noxious weeds in the State by supporting a framework of comprehensive detection, control, and eradication mechanisms, including the registration of nurseries.

Your Committees have amended this measure by:

(1) Deleting language that would have given certain invasive species committees and the Hawaii Ant Lab certain regulatory functions relating to the control and eradication of invasive species and pests;

(2) Deleting language that would have established a Plant Nursery Licensing Program, including a State Plant Regulatory Official;

(3) Inserting language establishing a Plant Nursery Registration Program;

(4) Deleting language that would have included an invasive species committee as an agent of the Department of Agriculture; and

(5) Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Agriculture and Environment and Transportation and Culture and the Arts that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 2758, H.D. 2, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 2758, H.D. 2, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committees on Judiciary and Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Agriculture and Environment and Transportation and Culture and the Arts,

________________________________ CHRIS LEE, Chair

________________________________ MIKE GABBARD, Chair